Statins, according to many studies, also damage the kidneys, and the brain, why are they still in use?
Educate yourself, cause your doctor isn't going to.
I haven't started taking them so far. I am a licenced physician. Links would be appreciated. My impression is that adverse reactons are caused by genetics. Some people shouldn't take statins, but so far, it looks like a small subset.
My cholesterol crept up a little and my GP discussed putting me on a statin. But I have MS, and my neuro was dead set against it. Evidently there’s some serious side effect whose main symptom is muscle pain and weakness, and she said, in her experience, the problem was you couldn’t tell if you were having side effects from the drug or just experiencing normal MS problems.
They also ran a study with those taking interferon (I take Betaseron) and statins to see if it was effective for MS. It seemed to make their MS worse.
http://www.neurology.org/cgi/content/full/71/18/e54
So I changed my diet, added Omega 3’s, and Cholesteroff (an OTC product recommended by my GP) and my cholesterol came down significantly.
The muscle-specific ubiquitin ligase atrogin-1/MAFbx mediates statin-induced muscle toxicity - Muscle/kidney damage
Most of the folks that are prescribed statins already have some aches and pains and don't notice, or don't complain to their doctors, and on the doctor's side, the pharmacos are saying it's a small percentage that is affected.
So it's both under reported by the patient and the doctors. And they're all chasing the wrong dog, cholesterol is an effect of CHD, not the cause.
Linus Pauling already led the way, but almost none of the medical profession has followed.